Page 913 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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constitutes a reflection on the chair. I would ask that you consider whether your comments are appropriate and, if you have reflected on the chair, you should withdraw the statements that you have just made.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Thank you very much. My comments are indeed a reflection on the chair. They are congratulations to the Speaker on his tolerance and his forbearance in very trying circumstances. Mr Hanson, I thank you for the opportunity for me to put on the record my appreciation of the tolerance of the Speaker. Please be aware, however, that I have advised the Speaker of these numbers so that he has the opportunity to process them in any way he sees fit. However, Mr Hanson, be also aware that I do not have the same tolerance level that the Speaker does. Mr Coe, do you want to say something?
Mr Coe: Yes, Mr Assistant Speaker. Would you please advise how those stats were determined? Who compiled the list, what constitutes an interjection, and for how many days has this tallying taken place? And what is the cost to the taxpayer in doing so?
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Certainly. I am very happy to do that, Mr Coe, because quite clearly you were not listening at the beginning. Perhaps if you sat up in class and paid attention, it might help. I indicated to you today that I did the count, and I did it in today’s question time. You asked what constitutes an interjection, Mr Coe. An interjection is something hurled across the chamber which makes concentration by either the person responding or the person making a speech difficult.
Mr Coe, I do not want this to be a conversation—it will go on forever—but you have one more opportunity and then we will move on to papers.
Mr Coe: The statistics that you just read out, were they compiled when you were in your capacity as Assistant Speaker? If not, why are you now reporting them as if they were?
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: The answer to your question, Mr Coe, is yes. Further papers, Mr Corbell.
Mr Hanson: It’s an abuse of the chair.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, I understood you just to say that that was an abuse of the chair. There is a process for you to prosecute that. If you want to—
Mr Hanson: I will consider it.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: No, Mr Hanson, you do not have an opportunity. You either actually do something now, Mr Hanson, or withdraw it, please. I would prefer that you withdraw it and we move to papers, but it is your call.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (3.29): Mr Assistant Speaker, I move dissent from your ruling. I am not sure what your ruling was, but certainly the performance that you have just made—providing a commentary on the performance of the opposition while sitting in the position of acting Speaker—I consider highly inappropriate. I move dissent.
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